Transfer Pricing Links 17/07/2014

“16/07/2014 – The OECD Council approved yesterday the contents of the 2014 Update to the OECD Model Tax Convention. The Update, which was previously approved by the Committee on Fiscal Affairs on 26 June, will be incorporated in a revised version of the Model Tax Convention that will be published in the next few months.

The 2014 Update reflects work on the Model Tax Convention that was carried out between 2010 and the end of 2013; it does not, therefore, include any results from the ongoing work on the BEPS Action Plan.

The 2014 Update includes the changes to Article 26 and its Commentary that were approved by the OECD Council on 17 July 2012. It also includes the final version of a number of changes that were previously released for comments through the following discussion drafts:

“July 14 — A little more than two years after the launch of the Internal Revenue Service’s Transfer Pricing Operations unit, the agency’s effort to strengthen its hand in high-profile international cases hasn’t played out as its architects planned, practitioners say.”

“July 8 — The departures of top international officials from the Internal Revenue Service won’t change the focus of the Large Business and International division on global tax issues or its ability to address those issues, agency spokesman Bruce Friedland told Bloomberg BNA.”

US Corporate Inversions Back In The Spotlight: Tax-News.com (M Godfrey)

“Based on information from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), Sander Levin (D – Michigan), the United States House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member, has issued details of an increasing number of “corporate inversions” since 1983, and has reignited a debate on how they should be stopped.

Corporate inversions have been used by US companies, when bidding for (generally smaller) foreign companies, as a means of moving away from the high American 35 percent corporate tax rate. Under current law, a company that merges with an offshore counterpart can move its headquarters abroad (even though management and operations remain in the US), and take advantage of lower taxes, as long as at least 20 percent of its shares are held by the foreign company’s shareholders after the merger.”

“The UK Treasury has opened a consultation with the oil and gas industry on the long-term future of the North Sea tax regime, as the cost of UK Continental Shelf exploration and extraction projects has risen.”

“The Bring Jobs Home Act, which would close a tax break for companies moving operations abroad, and extend tax credits to companies that “return jobs” to the United States, has been reintroduced in the Senate.

Companies that bring business activities back to the US would be eligible for a tax credit equal to 20 percent of the “eligible insourcing expenses” associated with the relocation. However, the tax credit would not be granted unless a company’s full-time US employees increased.”

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